Ruth Teninga Anderson, who was active in a number of nonprofit groups, headed the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Women’s Association for three years in the 1980s and earlier managed the resale shop at the Bethlehem Community Center Settlement House in Chicago.
“She was very devoted to the symphony and to music in general,” said Nancy Woulfe, a longtime friend and colleague from the symphony. “And she was a very hard worker. She never gave up on anything.”
Anderson, 100, died of natural causes on April 20 at the King Bruwaert House assisted living community in Burr Ridge, said her daughter, Leigh Anderson Rappole. She had resided in Hinsdale from 1954 until 2016.
Born Ruth Teninga in the South Side’s Roseland neighborhood, Anderson was the daughter of Cornelius Teninga, a longtime real estate professional who had headed his own firm, Teninga & Co., and who had been the president of the Chicago Real Estate Board. Anderson attended the University of Chicago Laboratory School and then graduated from Fenger High School.
Anderson attended Wells College in central New York for three years before returning to the Chicago area and spending two years at Northwestern University, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in 1940.
Right after college, Anderson worked at Montgomery Ward Inc. for about a year as a copywriter for the company’s mail-order catalog. She married Roger Anderson in 1941 and they lived in Massachusetts and Colorado while he was in the Navy during World War II.
Her husband was a homebuilder, and after the war she worked with him for four or five years as the interior designer for the model homes he built.
Anderson and her husband were active with Bethlehem Community Center, a settlement house that was located in an old church at 1853 S. Loomis St. in the Southwest Side’s Pilsen neighborhood.
“They’d go over there on a regular basis and get to know the people there and have dinners,” her daughter said.
Anderson’s involvement at Bethlehem Community Center spanned eight years in the 1950s and 1960s. During her time there, she was in charge of the center’s resale shop, while her husband was president of the center’s board.
Anderson also active with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Women’s Association for many years, serving as president from 1983 until 1986.
Woulfe recalled working with Anderson on organizing the association’s archives, when Anderson was in her 80s.
“She was very generous with her time and her talents, as well as her means,” Woulfe said.
Anderson’s other interests included the University of Chicago’s Great Books program and the Hinsdale Historical Society. Anderson also was the two-time women’s champion at the Hinsdale Golf Club in Clarendon Hills.
Roger Anderson died in 2005. In addition to her daughter, Anderson is survived by two sons, Geoff and Ross; three grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and a sister, Loraine Teninga Plasman.
A memorial service will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 29, at Union Church of Hinsdale, 137 S. Garfield St., Hinsdale.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.